Digital Marketing News in the Tampa Bay Area and Vestal New York.

Sports photography is all about freezing action and capturing an unforgettable, blink-of-an-eye moment—something Andrew and Karen Bourne of Epic Artwork & Photo have a natural talent for!

Epic Artworks is a husband-wife photography team passionate about capturing great emotion and energy in their images. Their skill and style of shooting easily transition to any type of photography. Although, their specialty is shooting live action events, such as rock ‘n roll concerts, aviation shows, tattoo conventions, and, now, sports too!

Business is Business—Even with Art

Although sports photography is in high demand, Epic Artworks still needed a well-constructed marketing plan to build meaningful client relationships, promote their business, and set the stage for future growth. Marketing is an essential component of building a successful photography business, particularly when it comes to reaching new clients.

Sun Sign Designs worked closely with Epic Artworks to establish their brand and develop a strong digital presence through these proven digital marketing tactics.

Website

Every photographer needs an online presence. It is not only an essential digital touchpoint for clients to preview a photographer’s work, but it is critical for photography businesses to establish a professional presence clients can trust. A professional website establishes the credibility needed to begin building client relationships with school administrations, their sports teams, and parents.

A photography website is needed for much more than displaying impressive images. A website is the best place to share your brand’s story and build personal connections with visitors. In fact, studies show that approximately 50% of first-time website visitors will look at the About Us page to learn “who you are” and the business’s vision. Building out content that is personal to a brand’s story and background is not only pivotal to engaging and interesting visitors, but also establishing trust.

Read Epic Artworks personal brand story here.

Digital Portfolio

Incredible action shots are the bread-and-butter of sports photography. Prospective clients expect to see an extensive portfolio of these types of shots to signal a photographer’s experience and credibility. As a result, photographers like Epic Artworks need a digital space to display their collection of live-action sports photography.

In a digital world, online portfolio displays are a must. The digital portfolio takes on the role of displaying the photographer’s creative range, showing their specialties, and demonstrating their professional skill to clients. When deciding on how best to showcase their work online, it is important to carefully select the best images, curate an engaging visual narrative, and present their portfolio of work in a professional yet attractive manner.

Check out Epic Artworks’ sports photography portfolio here.

Social Media

Fostering authentic connections is the best way for businesses to market themselves to their target audience. Where’s the best place to do that? Social media.

Social media is an integral part of every business’s marketing plan, regardless of the industry. Why? It’s a proven marketing tool that provides endless organic opportunity to connect with your target audience and grow your following. Social media provides an easy, accessible way for photographer’s to showcase their work, reach a wider audience, and create genuine connections with prospective clients.

After all, photographers like Epic Artworks already have loads of amazing content to share (i.e. their photography!). As a result, social media provides the perfect platform for photographers to engage their audience with what they do best. Check out Epic Artworks Instagram here, Facebook here, and Twitter here for a look at their social media strategy.

Blog Presence

Social media is a great place to start a conversation with your audience, but where do you go to deepen those conversations? To the blog!

Although visuals are the heart and soul of photography, words do wonders too! Not only do blogs strengthen SEO to drive traffic to your website and work, but it is also a great opportunity for visitors and prospective clients to gain insight into your skills, connect with your brand story, and understand what your business can offer them. Blogs are a highly effective way to engage your audience, educate or interest them, and attract them to keep them coming to your brand.

Visit Epic Artworks blog here, where they share behind-the-scenes looks at their photography services, best practices, and other topics important to their brand.

Final Thoughts

A well-designed website and marketing plan are essential to building the meaningful client relationships that allow your business to thrive. Are you ready to take your business to the next level of growth? Schedule a FREE 30 minute strategy session with us today!

Sun Sign Designs is proud to present the newly-launched website for Exporter’s Toolkit!

Exporter’s Toolkit assists small and medium-sized businesses enter into and succeed in the global marketplace. Their mission is to help every business access the tools and resources they need to overcome export challenges and break into overseas markets—even if it seems impossible.

As a company that is passionate about uplifting small businesses, Exporter’s Toolkit understands and appreciates the inherent challenges they face when it comes to exporting. Their main objective is to support overwhelmed or lost business owners and help them navigate a clear, confident path forward.

As a result, Exporter’s Toolkit turned to Sun Sign Designs to create a website, design a logo, and craft website copy that clearly speak to their target demographics’ problems, priorities, and concerns.

The Roadmap to Global Growth

Logo

A business’s logo is the building block of their branding. Effective logo designs create strong, lasting first impressions that strategically position a business for success. A successful logo design will convey a brand’s values and personality to its target audience.

When it came to the logo design for Exporter’s Toolkit, Sun Sign Designs selected dark blue, bolded font to convey the business’s dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and professionalism. The logo is then energized with light orange framing and an airplane acting as the apostrophe in “Exporter’s.” This combination of the lively orange color and creative addition of a plane acts as a callback to Exporter’s Toolkit’s goal of getting their clients abroad—but it also conveys a feeling of boldness and optimism. This combination of dependability and optimism in the colors blue and orange speaks to the target audience’s desire to have a dependable, positive guide to confidently navigate their export journey.

Imagery

For Exporter’s Toolkit, Sun Sign Designs incorporated images of globes, planes, cargo ships, and compasses to underscore exporting themes of travel, navigation, and exploring new opportunity. SSD also integrated images of business professionals to infuse the website with an atmosphere of professionalism, capability, and dependability. Finally, in keeping with the logo design, SSD balances the use of blues and oranges throughout the site, creating a cohesive design and brand message.

Copy

Website copy and content are pivotal aspects of introducing a business, explaining their service offerings, and increasing SEO results. Sun Sign Designs worked to create a meaningful balance between the brand-driven visuals and relevant copy. During the copywriting process, SSD wrote copy for the homepage, about us page, and several service pages. Keeping the target audience in mind, we employed a professional yet encouraging tone to inspire confidence in business owners interested in exporting.

Check out the website for Exporter’s Toolkit and let us know what you think!

Website: https://exporttoolkit.com

Need to Redefine Your Brand?

Contact Sun Sign Designs if your business needs to create a new website, refresh your existing website, or create new branding or logos. Schedule your FREE 30 minute consultation here!

If you have never tracked time before, you may be surprised to hear that many businesses consider it a staple to their organization. Why?

Time tracking is key to a productive, insightful workflow that keeps your business growing and improving. It allows businesses to fully understand how everyone in their organization—from managers to team members—spend their time on projects or assigned tasks. Time tracking is especially useful for businesses that regularly work with consultants, bill clients by the hour, or have remote, hybrid work arrangements.

RTC Tracking is a consultant management time tracking software tool that allows businesses full transparency to the work being performed by a consultant or off-site employees. The RTC Software tracks all aspects of work performance, such as:

  • Allowing instant approvals & acceptance of work
  • Providing automatic billing
  • Maintaining historical work performance records

RTC provides great added value for both the company and its consultants. Read on to learn the major advantages of time tracking with RTC!

Accountability & Transparency

Incorporating time tracking into your business automatically introduces much-needed accountability and transparency for all parties involved. It offers clear insights into the jobs being completed, their duration, and costs to ensure honesty can be maintained and that there are no surprises on either side.

It is important for consultants and businesses that bill clients hourly to accurately track their time instead of guessing it. Tracking your time ensures that you neither sell yourself short by underestimating time nor overcharge clients, which could damage the relationship. Effective time tracking software prevents businesses and consultants from manipulating times, padding numbers, and overcharging—holding all parties accountable and answerable to potential dishonesty.

Remote Monitoring & Project Management

If you work with independent contractors or manage a remote team, then you know it can be difficult to keep track of what’s going on and who is doing what. With so many moving parts in your business, it can become nearly impossible to establish what is being worked on by whom, what results have been achieved, and not to mention, what the costs will be at the end.

Having no idea what is being done by employees or what is getting charged by consultants leaves your business in the dark and at risk of losing money. And if as a business owner, you can’t say whether your consultants are achieving the desired results based on the time spent on a project, then you may also be at risk of paying for deliverables that don’t pass muster.

To avoid this, businesses need time tracking software to keep track of the status of projects in real-time, ascertain who is working on which tasks, and analyze if the time spent on the work meets their budgetary requirements and quality standards.

Improved Productivity & Profitability

Time tracking allows business owners to gain much-needed insight into how consultants or employees spend their time. Without time tracking, many businesses do not realize that some of their projects are unprofitable.

For example, some of the most time-consuming tasks aren’t necessarily the most profitable or valuable to a business. And when businesses can clearly see how much time it takes to complete a task, they can begin to reflect if that time was well-spent.

When businesses can clearly see time spent on certain tasks, then they can assess the profitability of those tasks, quickly spot unprofitable activities, and prioritize their consultant’s time to more worthwhile assignments.

Better Business Protection

If you are a client services business, then you know clients will sometimes ask for detailed explanations of why certain tasks took as long as they did. With the right time tracking tools, you can create a report and easily show them how long great work takes and why. As a consultant or business owner, this data is indispensable to help clients understand that the time they are paying for is put to good use.

Time tracking data also protects businesses from unreasonable client expectations and from dishonest clients that claim they never approved the work. With RTC’s time tracking software, businesses can further protect and empower their organization by:

  • Providing proof that each task was accepted and approved
  • Providing proof they completed assigned work
  • Providing detailed reports about what was completed during time logged
  • Creating better estimates for future projects by analyzing the time it takes to finish projects.
  • Measuring the profitability of a project given time spent on it

Want to Test Drive RTC Time Tracking?

Time is one of the most valuable resources of every business. Is your business using its time right? RTC Tracking will help your business optimize your time for increased cost-savings and improved performance.

If your business wants determine the value of RTC’s Time Tracking Software for yourself, sign up for a FREE 14 Day No Obligations Trial here.

Sun Sign Designs is proud to present Whiting & Co. Beauty Bar’s website!

Whiting & Co. Beauty Bar is a woman-owned beauty provider in Montgomery, Texas. The newly-launched beauty business provides spray tanning and lashes extensions with permanent makeup soon to be on their roster of services.

Beauty Redefined

Robyn Whiting, owner of Whiting & Co. Beauty Bar, wanted to create a supportive, inclusive space where individuality and uniqueness are celebrated. She turned to Sun Sign Designs to create the beautiful website she needed to display her services, speak to her brand messaging, and easily allow her clients to book appointments.

Sun Sign Designs designed a beautiful website and crafted brand-driven copy—both of which reflected Robyn’s genuine passion for beauty and ensured her business started out with a strong digital presence to effectively present her services, pricing, and location to the Montgomery area. The eye-catching homepage perfectly captures Whiting & Co.’s brand mission of illuminating natural beauty and inspiring self-confidence.

Since website copy and content are pivotal aspects of increasing local SEO results, Sun Sign Designs worked to create a meaningful balance between beautiful visuals and relevant, engaging copy. During the copywriting process, we incorporated an encouraging, uplifting tone to match Whiting & Co.’s mission of inspiring self-confidence.

Check out Whiting & Co. Beauty Bar’s beautiful website and let us know what you think!

Website: https://whitingcobeautybar.com/

Need to Redefine Your Brand?

Contact Sun Sign Designs if your business needs to create a new website, refresh your existing website, or create new branding or logos. Schedule your FREE 30 minute consultation here!

The Life Enrichment Center (LEC) is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is for our students to fulfill their lifelong creative potential through the ageless engagement of the arts.

The LEC is an innovative arts education center for adults, operating in Tampa since 1980. It is one of only a few centers across the country focused on redefining and reshaping retirement and the experience of aging. Its cultural arts program has received national and international recognition and serves as a model of a successful community-based organization, serving adults primarily ages 50+.

Sun Sign Designs was engaged by the LEC in late 2019 to help redeveloped their website. As a global pandemic loomed, the demographic of the LEC no longer could take in person classes and a solution needed to be established to keep the organization moving. The organization primarily functioned on paper, so a digitalization for class registration and class attendance was developed. This assisted in building an online only organization. In combination with zoom, a consultative approach was taken with the students and instructors to assist them in a transition to taking classes in a virtual space. Because of the efforts taken, the LEC was able to stay in business and maintain 70% of it grant money that would have been lost due to the pandemic.

In 2022, the challenges at the LEC continued as the pandemic came to an end. After stumbling through a staffing shift, the LEC found its funds exhausted. SSD jumped in to provide a reorganization plan, to move to a temporary volunteer staffing model. Putting processes and procedures in place, along with a revamp of the digital process for classes, SSD helped guide the organization into a full process transformation. Using workflow management techniques to build efficiencies, we assisted in lowing the workload on many tasks that would normally take hours to complete. Finally, guiding the board of directors, we assisted in building the volunteer based needed to succeed. After lowing over all costs, and taking a consultative team approach, the LEC currently to this day has enough funds to operate for a full year with out lifting another finger.

The LEC is the perfect example of helping leadership see a different perspective and guiding them to a successful outcome. The above outcome was the efforts of teamwork in a blended combination, of volunteers, active board members and paid consultants.

To learn more on how Sun Sign Designs can help solve your challenges, please contact us for a FREE 30 min consultation.

Seeds To Sew is a non for profit that specializes in providing funds to under served women in Kenya for education purposes. Women in Kenya are taught to sew an assortment of products. Each seamstress’s products are labeled with their info. The products are sent to the United States to be sold in the Seeds To Sew shop. The profit for each product sold is sent back to the seamstress who sewed the product, allowing them to be able to afford education and improve their quality of life.

Seeds To Sew needed an affordable way to digitally market their website. Besides their physical store, e-commerce makes up a portion of their sales. Thus they needed a partner that could allow them to grow and help as many people as possible.

Sun Sign Designs first addressed their website to assist in setting up the foundation for building out marketing efficiencies. The site was redesigned to focus on the mission of the business and to tell the story of the seamstresses. SSD also made it a product focused website to help Seeds To Sew sell more products as well as build workflows to sell to other outside store channels. SSD made sure all industry standards were ment in how each product was presented so that SEO could function correctly and gain ground in the search engines.

Though a bi-weekly consultative approach, SSD identified challenges with Seeds To Sew and helped provide insights on how to improve the business’s workflow, sales cycle, supply chain and digital presence. Through digital transformation, SSD helped establish loyalty programs, affiliate programs and use digital systems to help build efficiencies in the business to gain more sales as well as, deduce the workload of the executive director. Workload reduction was also implemented in the store software to help manage customers and build retention. Our consultative approach, further assisted in helping combat supply chain challenges and provide potential avenues to retain customers and donors.

If your non profit is having challenges in workflow management, profitability or being efficient, we offer a free consultation to help guide you in the right direction.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly impressive and dynamic tool, but what we have realized is this: AI will never be able to replace a marketing team.

Don’t get us wrong, AI automation software that streamlines simple tasks has its place in marketing. These automation tools reduce repetitive tasks, segment lists, and easily add personalization. Sending automatic birthday emails, abandoned cart reminders, and segmented content based on customer triggers is highly effective and a powerful way to engage your audience.

However, while AI is transforming the marketing industry, it won’t be able to replace a team of dedicated marketing professionals. Here’s why:

AI is Mimicking, Not Creating

AI is purely powered by patterns and data. The AI systems trawl large amounts of data and regurgitate existing knowledge, ideas, and images. As a result, AI is not drawing on personal intelligence, creativity, or agency but rather predetermined algorithms that mimic human outputs. When it comes to content creation, AI produces dry imitations of human work that, more often than not, ring insincere, sterile, and unoriginal.

While AI systems may be able to generate an image that is technically proficient or text that is grammatically correct, it will not be able to create compelling, original work that truly engages your audience. AI is mimicking—even, at times, outright plagiarizing—existing works, not creating original content that is actually valuable to your business.

Creativity Can’t Be Automated

At its core, marketing is driven by creativity and innovation. While AI can analyze large datasets and make recommendations based on that data, it cannot brainstorm new, innovative ideas—it can only reiterate concepts that already exist. While AI is limited to pre-determined patterns, structures, and data, humans can draw on their unique life experiences and perspectives as an endless source of creativity.

Sometimes the best marketing decisions aren’t based in facts and datasets. While analytics are helpful, marketing teams often rely on their creativity, intuition, and instincts to make decisions, which is something AI simply cannot replicate.

AI Lacks Personal Touch & Individuality

In competitive markets, ensuring your brand can stand out from the crowd is critical. Brands must focus on stamping their unique identity on all their marketing materials, whether it is through their writing style, tone, artistic techniques, or other personal touches that are singular to their brand.

AI-generated work accelerates the loss of individuality in the same way mass production replaced original craftsmanship—going from one-of-a-kind to run-of-the-mill. In other words, AI systems produce cookie-cutter content that is technically functional but uniform, indistinctive, and completely forgettable. Rather than stand out, AI-generated content will force your brand further into the shadows.

AI is Devoid of Emotion

Building relationships through content requires keen emotional intelligence and empathy. It’s the X factor that marketing will always need. When creating content, the writer, graphic designer, or other marketing professional must first understand the customer and identify with their problems and needs before producing anything. This empathetic mindset results in content that the target audience can truly relate to and engage with on a deeper level. This type of content is not only highly effective in engaging and converting, but it is also incredibly memorable since it sparks an emotional response.

AI has no lived experiences or personal perspectives to draw on and is incapable of emotionally relating to a human audience. It cannot imbue its generated content with rich, complex emotions and feelings like a human can. AI-generated content is largely sterile and devoid of real feeling. It lacks the emotional depth and authenticity that is the hallmark of human creativity. Make no mistake—your audience will be able to detect AI’s stiff, inexpressive, and imitative style.

Human Judgment is Indispensable

Successful marketing requires a deep understanding of human behavior, particularly the needs, desires, and motivations of your target audience, as well as an understanding of ethics. While AI is capable of providing data insights on your customers’ behavior, it is not capable of understanding human emotion, psychology, and ethical decision-making—all of which is essential for making principled, effective marketing choices.

For example, if an AI system draws on biased data or unfairly targets a demographic based on the data it is presented, it may produce writing, images, and other content that is harmful, problematic, and not representative of your business and brand values. The content created by AI is based on patterns and relationships it has learned from existing data, but the AI has no true understanding of the meaning or intention behind the content. As a result, with AI-generated content, the possibility of missing the mark and offending your audience is a very real, ever-present risk.

What is your business’s goal when it comes to content creation?

Do you want to entertain, educate, inform, inspire, or convert? Whatever your goal is, every business needs original content that speaks to their brand identity and engages their audience. Contact us today to discuss content development and marketing strategies that will grow your business.

We believe that, as a business, we are indebted to a society that supports our services and makes our business possible. As a result, we believe that we have a duty to invest back into the community and create positive lasting change that ultimately improves people’s lives. After all, strong communities are what enable businesses of all kinds to succeed in the first place.

Tampa, Florida: Helping Individuals Experiencing Homelessness

As a digital marketing agency, we love to solve difficult marketing challenges. We bring this mindset to our community outreach and try to create new, innovative solutions that effectively address persistent community challenges. Homelessness in Tampa is one such challenge Sun Sign Designs has recently had the privilege to volunteer and work on. Reaching out to individuals experiencing homelessness is critical to helping them access supportive services that restore their dignity and enhance the possibility that they will be able to achieve their housing and life goals.

The Hillsborough Community Homeless Outreach event is a collaborative partnership program between Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Hillsborough County, Tampa Police Department, City of Tampa, Tampa International Airport Police, and Sun Sign Designs Inc., in cooperation with community event sponsors, like Sacred Heart Catholic Church, to support those in the community experiencing homelessness.

Majority of this effort is supported through local charitable donations by the community and event sponsors, including donated time from the partnership’s employees and volunteers from all the participating sponsors in the community. Homeless outreach events such as these are designed to serve disconnected, alienated individuals, integrate them into a network of support, and empower them with necessary services. As a result, the coordination of vendors, volunteers, and services is critical for a successful outreach event—which is where we were able to put our problem-solving mindset and digital marketing tools to good use!

The services Sun Sign Designs provides effectively empower this partnership program through our technology and services to support large scale event planning, operations, and analytics. We also provide consultations on how to evolve the program over time based on partner, vendor, and volunteer feedback and analytics.

Empower Your Community

The importance of giving back to a community that has uplifted you cannot be overstated. For our business, giving back to the community is rewarding, but it is also a natural extension of our company mission. We believe that we have an obligation to reinvest into the community that has helped support our services—in other words, we want to empower those who have empowered us.

As individuals and as businesses, we all have the power to be innovators, to help people, and truly make a difference in our communities. Donating your time, talents, and skills is one of the best ways to develop solutions to problems, make an impact, and improve the lives of those around you.

How does your business or organization use your time, resources, or skills to make a difference? We’d love to hear from you!

Would your nonprofit organization or charitable event benefit from technology and services that support large scale event planning, operations, and analytics? Contact us today and book a free consultation call to discuss your organization’s needs.

In Tampa, Florida, the need for digital marketing is growing as fast as the population.

Tampa boasts one of the highest population growth rates in the United States and, with it, an ideal environment for local businesses and organizations to thrive. However, in a constantly growing environment like Tampa, there is steep competition for people’s attention among businesses of all sizes and industries.

Sun Sign Designs believes that behind each business or nonprofit in Tampa, there is the opportunity to enhance our community’s quality of life and meaningfully contribute to community identity. But to grow the diverse local businesses and important organizations that make Tampa great, we need to ensure the community can discover and enjoy them.

Consequently, Tampa digital marketing has become essential for businesses and nonprofit organizations to reach more people and connect their services with the community.

We Know Tampa

At Sun Sign Designs, we are familiar with the challenges Tampa area businesses and nonprofits face. These days it takes more than a website or social media page to expand your reach, appear before your audience, and continue growing. With effective digital marketing tools and a completely customized strategy, we help Tampa businesses and nonprofit organizations grow so they can continue to enrich our community with their services.

Can the Tampa Community Find Your Business or Nonprofit?

93% of U.S. customers rely on search engines to find local businesses and approximately 50% of Tampa adults will spend 10+ hours online weekly searching for local businesses. Is your business or organizations digitally equipped to be found by high-intent customers in the Tampa area?

In a crowded and competitive environment like Tampa, it can be easy to get lost among the competition. But if you can’t be found, your business can’t function, let alone thrive. As a result, a strong digital presence is nonnegotiable if a business or nonprofit organization wants to be found online and visited in-person.

When a business ranks high in local search results, they not only stand out in a competitive market like Tampa but they also position themselves as the more credible business to use. As a result, improved local SEO increases in-store foot traffic, targeted website traffic, and more qualified leads. It is also the first step to building the brand recognition that grows your business and sustains it long-term.

They Can Find You—But Do They Know You?

Optimizing your local SEO is only part of the equation. If your target audience can easily find you in Tampa, do your website and social media pages effectively deliver your message and offer insight into your brand identity? Once your target audience can find you, the next challenge is effectively conveying your mission, brand identity, and offerings.

What do you offer that your competition doesn’t? How do you stand out? And why should they use you instead? These questions, though unspoken, are at the heart of every encounter a person has with your brand. Answering them through digital marketing strategies, such as dedicated content development, creates a journey people are excited to embark on. Content tools, such as blogs, videos, newsletters, website design, and more effectively establish market differentiation, cement relationships, and keep customers coming back.

A strong digital presence and a strong brand identity are key components to growing long-term— digital marketing is what achieves both.

Tampa Digital Marketing Services

Sun Sign Designs is a full-service digital marketing agency dedicated to helping Tampa area businesses and nonprofit organizations thrive. With 23 years in business, we offer backed digital marketing knowledge and expertise that has consistently helped our clients grow. If your Tampa area business or nonprofit organization needs a digital marketing strategy and tools to drive positive results, contact us today!

Unless you’re a legal expert, it’s not always clear which laws may or may not apply to your business and website. One such law that has become a hot topic of conversation is ADA Compliance. Does it really apply to your business or organization’s website?

In short, yes. A website that offers goods, services, or information intended to be used by the general public is considered “a place of public accommodation” under Title III of ADA and legally required to be accessible to people with disabilities.

Read on for a more in-depth explanation of ADA Compliance as well as the responsibilities and risks business owners face with their website.

What is the ADA?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990, is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination of individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life and places open to the general public. It applies to the government, schools, and businesses as well as anyone who offers goods or services to the public.

You are most likely familiar with the ADA in its physical sense as you encounter accommodations like wheelchair ramps, which make physical spaces accessible to people with disabilities. However, the ADA has come to apply to our digital spaces, so people with disabilities have equal access to the goods, services, technology, and information found online.

When the ADA was first passed in 1990, there were no websites online. However, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has since stated that the ADA was always meant to keep up with rapidly changing technology. Since 1996, the DOJ has consistently taken the position that the ADA applies to web content and that websites are considered places of public accommodation. In 2010, the DOJ further solidified this position when it released the ADA Standards for Accessible Design.

ADA Compliance vs. Section 508 Compliance

ADA Compliance is not the same thing as 508 Compliance, even though they both involve accessibility.

ADA Compliance is sometimes confused with Section 508 Compliance of the Rehabilitation Act, which is a federal law and strictly applies to federal agencies and federal departments. ADA Compliance is a civil rights law that applies to places of public accommodation, specifically to businesses, nonprofits, local governments, and state governments. In short, if your business or organization caters to the general public, then your website must be ADA Compliant.

The part of ADA that affects how businesses serve the general public, both online and in-person, is under Title III. It is what would be cited if an individual wished to file a civil lawsuit against a business that is physically or digitally inaccessible. Title III of ADA prohibits private places of public accommodation from discriminating against people with disabilities. As a result, businesses of all types (online & in-person) have to make it possible for customers with disabilities to access their services.

Who Needs to be ADA Compliant?

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities by businesses open to the public. The U.S. Department of Justice has consistently take the position that the ADA’s requirements apply to all goods, services, privileges, and activities offered by public accommodations.

As a result, if your website offers goods, services, or information intended for the general public, it is legally required to become ADA compliant and offer reasonable accessibility.

Who is Responsible for ADA Compliance?

Every website owner (i.e. the business owner) is solely responsible for developing a website that offers “reasonable accessibility.” Regardless of who builds and develops the website, it is the website owner that is responsible for implementing the accessibility standards and personally liable for noncompliance. In most cases of noncompliance, it is completely unintentional. Even though website owners aren’t intentionally ignoring these standards, they will be held completely liable

What is the Risk of Non-Compliance?

If your website is not ADA-Compliant, then your business faces financial and reputational risks. Under U.S. law, citizens can file civil lawsuits and sue businesses with inaccessible websites. Losing an ADA-related lawsuit can result in:

  • Legal fees
  • Large settlements
  • Damages
  • Hefty fines for violation
  • Public relations problems
  • Damage to brand reputation

Being unaware of the law isn’t a defense against digital inaccessibility and business owners will be held just as liable. First-time violations can result in fines to the government from $55,000-$75,000 and then a $150,000 fine for every repeat violation. In short, if your website is not ADA Compliant, you can end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in paying fines and settling civil lawsuits.

Click here to read about the rapid rise in website accessibility lawsuits.

Become ADA Compliant Today

What does an ADA-complaint website look like exactly? Well, there are no clear regulations. Websites must make an effort to offer “reasonable accessibility” to people with disabilities. It is at the discretion of the business owner how they would like to make their website compliant.

Sun Sign Designs offers the digital accessibility solution needed for your website to meet ADA Compliance. There’s no need to overhaul your website and rewrite code—we will seamlessly integrate our AI-powered accessibility widget onto your website, so your business can remain accessible to all individuals. We offer an easy, secure compliance solution that doesn’t require reworking your entire site.

To find out more about ADA website compliance, how you can provide equal access and protect your business, contact Sun Sign Designs today!